Article excerpt

When is the Bible history and when is it religion? That is
the question school officials in Fort Myers, Fla., are struggling
to answer after a federal judge said public high school students
here could study the Bible as a history textbook.

Some 153 students at seven high schools in Florida's Lee
County began attending Old Testament history classes on Wednesday,
a day after the judge's ruling. But the same judge blocked a
similar course on the New Testament set to begin in March,
questioning how the biblical account of Christ Jesus' resurrection
and other "miracles" could be taught as secular history.

By one estimate, Bible classes are taught in 21 other states.
But Fort Myers has become the site of a major battle over the
separation of church and state.
"This is certainly the kind of case that could wind up at the
Supreme Court. It is an area where we could use some guidance by
the high court," says Joseph Conn, a spokesman for the
Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and
State.
The American Civil Liberties Union and People for the
American Way filed suit in federal court to block the classes in
Lee County. They and other opponents of the Bible history classes
say the curriculum is a thinly disguised effort by Christian school
board members to indoctrinate teens with Christian theology.
Supporters of Bible study say an understanding of the book is
essential for all literate, well-educated Americans. They deny any
secret agenda to teach religion in public schools.
Legal experts say the central issue is not what is taught but
how it is taught.
If the material were treated objectively in a course that
focused on the literary importance of the Bible or through a
comparative religion approach, critics of the current curriculum
say they would have no problem. But teaching the Bible as history
seems to support a particular religious perspective held by some
Christians who believe as an article of faith that the Bible is
literal history, they say. …